FINAL PROGRAM

Sunday October 6, 2024

2:00-5:00 pm Registration and Check-in, The Abbey Resort, Fontana-on-the-Lake, WI

5:00-7:00 pm Opening Session

• 5:00 pm Opening Remarks:
  Steven Blanke, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Conference Chair
  Min Dong, Boston Children's/Harvard, Vice Chair
• 5:10-5:30 pm Jennifer Bomberger, Dartmouth
  "Type VI Secretion in Pseudomonas aeruginosa promotes persistence and competition during viral co-infections"
• 5:30-5:50 pm Matthieu Haudiquat, Institut Pasteur
  “Evolution of antiviral immunity across domains of life"
• 5:50-6:10 pm Timothy Cover, Vanderbilt University
  "Helicobacter pylori CagA and Cag type IV secretion system activity have key roles in triggering gastric transcriptional and proteomic alterations"
• 6:10-7:00 pm Burroughs Wellcome Fund Opening Address
  Joseph Mougous, University of Washington
  “It's raining toxins; diverse mechanisms of interbacterial antagonism”

7:00-8:30 pm: Opening Dinner
8 pm to close: Waterfront Restaurant (Cash bar and patio Bonfire)

Monday October 7, 2024

7:15-8:15 am Continental Breakfast

8:15-11:30 am Session I

How toxins do the amazing things they do: Structure and Function underlying toxin mechanisms

• 8:15 am Opening Remarks by Session Chair, Roman Melnyk, University of Toronto
• 8:20-8:55 am Liang Tao, Westlake University, China
  “Toward Molecular Mechanisms and Clinical Implications for Host Recognition of C. difficile Toxin B”
• 8:55-9:15 am Michael Sheedlo, University of Minnesota
  "Structural Characterization of the Clostridioides difficile Transferase Reveals Intermediates that Occur During Intoxication"
• 9:15-9:35 am Annie Doyle, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
  "Characterization of a multimeric complex associated with Clostridioides difficile TcdB autoprocessing"
• 9:35-9:45 Flash Talks

9:45-10:10 am Coffee Break and Poster Viewing

• 10:10-10:20 am Baohua Chen, UC Irvine
  "Tuning the selectivity of a botulinum neurotoxin towards sensory neurons"
• 10:20-10:40 am Michaela Grobarcikova, Czech Academy of Sciences
  "Identification of residues involved in post-translational modification of Bordetella pertussis adenylate cyclase toxin"
• 10:40 - 11:15 am Alejandra Bravo de la Parra, Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
  “Beyond the Umbrella model: the Folding-Cane Model describing the conformational changes needed for membrane insertion of Bt Cry insecticidal toxins”

11:15 - 11:30 Group Photo

11:30 - 1:30 pm Poster Session I with Buffet Lunch

1:30-4:30 pm Session II - Monday Afternoon
Pore-forming toxins: There’s much more than meets the membrane…

• 1:30 pm Opening Remarks by Session Chair, Chen Chen, Louisiana State University
• 1:35-2:10 pm Rodney Tweten, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
  "Unexpected features and effects of distant cholesterol-dependent cytolysin relatives in gut Bacteroidales"
• 2:10-2:30 pm C.A. Jabeena, University of Iowa
  "Molecular mimicry of the human SNARE complex by Chlamydia trachomatis inclusion membrane proteins"
• 2:30-2:50 pm Hunter Abrahamsen, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
  "A surface lipoprotein protects prominent members of the human gut microbiome from antibacterial antagonism"
• 2:50-3:00 pm Flash Talks

3:00-3:25 pm Afternoon Break and Poster Viewing

• 3:25-3:45 pm Somnath Dutta, India Institute of Science
  "Cryo-EM Reveals the Mechanisms of Bacterial Toxin-Mediated Membrane Damage and Remodeling"
• 3:45-4:05 pm Alex Johnson, Brandeis University
  "Mechanism and evolution of gasdermin pore formation"
• 4:05 - 4:40 pm Victor Torres, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
  “Breaking the species-specific barrier to probe the role of pore-forming toxins in vivo”

4:45 - 6:00 pm Career Session, Panel TBA

6:00 - 7:00 pm Free time

7:00-8:30 pm Conference Dinner
8 pm to close: Waterfront Restaurant (Cash Bar and Patio Bonfire)

Tuesday October 8, 2024

7:15-8:15 am Continental Breakfast

8:15-11:30 am Session III - Tuesday morning
The Secret Garden: The complex world of intracellular acting protein exotoxins and effectors

• 8:15 am Opening Remarks by Session Chair, Jana Kamanova, Czech Academy of Sciences
• 8:25-9:00 am Kimberly Orth, UT Southwestern
  “Black Spot, Black Death, Black Pearl: Tales of Bacterial Effectors”
• 9:00-9:20 am Paige Allen, Virginia Commonwealth University
  "An Orientia tsutsugamushi nucleomodulin impairs p53 production to inhibit host cell apoptosis"
• 9:20-9:40 am Alix McCullough, University of Iowa
  "The Chlamydia trachomatis T3S Effector TmeA Directly Interacts with Multiple Host Proteins to Facilitate Invasion"
• 9:40-9:50 Flash Talks

9:50-10:15 am Coffee Break and Poster Viewing

• 10:15-10:35 am Seema Mattoo, Purdue University
  "Fic-mediated GMPylation: Discovery of a Bordetella Fic protein with guanylyltransferase activity"
• 10:35-10:55 am Jonathan Pruneda, Oregon Health & Science University
  "A functional screen for ubiquitin regulation identifies an E3 ligase secreted by Pseudomonas aeruginosa"
• 10:55 - 11:30 am Kim Samirah Robinson, Ph.D., York University, UK
  “Indirect sensing of bacterial exotoxins by the NLRP1 inflammasome”

11:30 - 1:30 pm Poster Session II with Buffet Lunch

1:30-4:30 pm Session IV - Tuesday afternoon
Toxin-mediated remodeling of the host environment

• 1:30 pm Opening Remarks by Session Chair, Jimmy Ballard, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
• 1:35-2:10 pm Neal Alto, UT Southwestern
  "The Host-Pathogen Battle Over Cholesterol Accessibility."
• 2:10-2:30 pm ShiBo Cao, University of Toronto
  "Elucidating the Mechanism of Action of an NF-κB degrading Enzyme"
• 2:30-2:50 pm Abby Kroken, Loyola University Chicago
  "Toward a complete ADP-ribosylome of Exotoxin S from Pseudomonas aeruginosa"

2:50-3:15 pm Afternoon Break and Poster Viewing

• 3:15-3:35 pm Edward Culbertson, University of Pittsburgh
  "Molecular Evolution of Bacterial Iron Piracy in Amoeba Hosts"
• 3:35-3:55 pm Molly Crowder, U. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
  "Microbial-mediated genotoxicity remodels host intestinal epithelium"
• 3:55 - 4:30 pm Karla Satchell, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
  "What's next for MARTX toxins?"

4:30 - 5:00 pm Free time

5:15 - 7:30 pm Special Dinner event TBA

Wednesday October 9, 2024

7:30-8:30 am Breakfast

8:30-11:30 am Session V - Wednesday morning
Peeling back the complexity of protein toxins and effectors during infection

• 8:30 am Opening Remarks by Session Chair
  Chair, Carrie Shaffer (University of Kentucky)
• 8:35-9:10 am Dena Lyras, Monash University, Australia
  “Non-antibiotic strategies to mitigate C. difficile toxin-mediated infection: insights from discovery research”
• 9:10-9:30 am Ezequiel Valguamera, Washington University at St Louis
  "Antibacterial toxins from human gut bacteria engender neonatal colonization advantage"
• 9:30-9:50 am John Manion, University of Pittsburgh
  "C. difficile intoxicates neurons and pericytes to drive neurogenic inflammation"
• 9:50-10:10 am Huazhu Liang, University of Toronto
  "Engineering a bacterial effector as a novel pan-RAS targeting biologic for an aggressive brain tumor"
  

10:10-10:35 am Morning Break/Check-out

• 10:35-10:55 am Hunter Kuhn, Washington University at St. Louis
  "E. coli Alpha-Hemolysin Exploits LDL Receptor and Clathrin-Mediated Endocytosis to Damage Renal Epithelium"
• 10:55-11:15 am Deepak Patel, University of Calgary
  "Global analysis of Legionella pneumophila Dot/Icm translocated effectors expands the repertoire of functional domains involved in eukaryotic host manipulation"
• 11:15 - 11:50 pm Borden Lacy, Vanderbilt University Medical School
  “The difficulty of understanding the C. difficile toxins in a physiological context”
  

11:50 Closing Remarks - Steven Blanke, Conference Chair
12 pm: Conference Ends - Lunch on your own
~12:30 pm Transport to O’Hare and Mitchell Airports